"It
would be downright criminal for any self-respecting RPGer to deprive
themselves of these epic adventures."

Developer: SquareDistributor: SquareEA

Game
Type: RPGReview Date: Oct
99

Setting
the Scene:

Attention all RPGer's in the U.S.,
it is time to rejoice. Square has brought two of their best Final
Fantasy games from yesteryear over to the Playstation game console. Get
ready to experience (or re-experience) two classic RPG's - Final Fantasy
V and Final Fantasy VI.

Both of these games made their debut on the SNES and have been brought
over to the Playstation virtually untouched as far as the gameplay,
sound and in game graphics go.

Here is your chance to play through two of the best-scripted games in
the Final Fantasy universe that Square has ever created.

Sound
and Vision:

Considering the fact that Final
Fantasy V & VI are direct ports from the Super Nintendo system, the
graphics are not going to be up to the standards that people have become
accustomed to on the Playstation console. That being said, the graphics
certainly don't suck and actually manage to portray the characters and
scenes in a most creative way.

Everything
on the screen is sprite based and 2D, but it's interesting to see that
Square was pushing consoles to their limits even back then. Final
Fantasy V appears to use a 64-color scheme with rather simplistic
character and environment designs. What it lacks in complexity though,
it more than makes up for in originality. Here we have these cute little
onscreen characters that somehow manage to portray their actions with a
reasonable amount of emotion and conviction.

For FFVI, the color palette is obviously increased (256 color?) and the
portrayal of the environments and landscapes look decidedly better. The
SNES Mode 7 feature gets used quite frequently to scroll the landscape
and it's obvious to see that Square has gotten more comfortable with the
console. Characters are larger and better animated and the scenery is
much more lush and vibrant comparatively speaking of course.

I liked the fact that you had the ability to customize the colors of
your menu display in both games and the menu wallpaper background in
FFVI.

The graphics, while certainly not cutting edge by any stretch of the
imagination, are quite functional and have a certain appeal all their
own. I would certainly not worry about the graphics taking away from the
gameplay in fact they actually give the titles a nice nostalgic
touch.

Oh,
I should also mention that fully blown CG sequences have been added to
enhance the stories in each game. I really liked this addition as it
gave me a feel for how the artists actually visualized the main
characters and the worlds in which they live.

As far as the sound goes, Final Fantasy fans will be in heaven.
Composer Nobuo Uematsu must have been hitting his stride with these two
outings as the musical score for both games is incredible. The trademark
"end-battle" theme is present in slight variations from each
game, but the distinctive tune is there and quite apparent. It's
surprising just how good the Nintendo sound chip was for that time, as
it is capable of producing some really good music.

Where the limitations of the chip begin to show up is in the
reproduction of actual in game sound effects. While the PSX sound chip
normally duplicates sound effects as you would expect them to be heard
in real life, the SNES had a rather muddy sound for things like dogs
barking or swords clanging for instance. It's apparent that the full
range of sound was just not available from the chip.

The package also includes a third CD with the audio soundtracks from
each title now this is a bargain if there ever was one!

Playability:

Whoa boy the good old days of
RPGing. Super-deformed low-res sprite based characters wondering the
world without analog control we have gotten pretty darn spoiled
with the most recent RPG's that have been released, especially the newer
ones from Square.

When
I first started playing these two games I immediately became frustrated
at the antiquated control. I had all but forgotten how it felt to play
older RPG's where character movement consisted of up/down, right/left
digital controls. Diagonal movement in this game is not allowed so it
becomes a chore walking through caves and other areas that have twisting
landscapes. The method is take one step forward, jog left or right, take
another few steps forward and repeat the process to venture ahead.
Errrrr.

I also missed the luxury of being able to fully rotate the view 360
degrees in either direction when traveling the overworld. Instead gamers
are locked in a top down viewing mode, this isn't so terrible but I
still would like to have had the option of customizing my view a bit.

Okay, now that I have gotten the bad stuff out of the way, I can now
begin to concentrate on the good and boy there is a LOT of good in
here! Gamers are being treated here with two of the very best Final
Fantasy games ever created. Final Fantasy V is getting it's US premier
with this release. Until now it has only been available in Japan and
unless you know Japanese, importing a title with this much text was
virtually meaningless. Final Fantasy VI, which was originally released
for the SNES in the US as FFIII brings with it a brilliantly conceived
storyline and a unique and involving battle system.

Final
Fantasy V features a story and gameplay that many believe to be the
pinnacle of the Final Fantasy series. In this title gamers take on the
role of a drifter that just happens to be in the right place at the
wrong time. The game starts off with a nice little intro that has a King
flying away on his dragon to visit a place called the Wind Shrine. It
seems that something has happened at the Shrine because the wind has
died down to a whisper throughout the land. As King Tycoon bids farewell
to his daughter, Reina the scene shifts to the story's hero. - Before
going on I must mention that I cannot recall the lead characters name
because FFV gives players the option of inputting any name you like. In
my exuberance to play the game, I simple typed over the old name and put
in mine without really taking note of the original name! Yeah I know, I
could have just started a new game, but humor me here So, for the
sake of clarity we'll just call the character "Sir Tom"
hehehe. - During one of his excursions riding about on his trusty
Chocobo Boko, Sir Tom just happens to be at a particular location that
is the recipient of a meteor crash. After the dust settles Sir Tom meets
up with Princess Reina and a strange fellow named Galuf that seems to be
suffering from amnesia. Together they decide to journey on to the Wind
Shrine to try and find Reina's father. In total, there are four Shrines
that you must get to (Wind, Fire, Earth & Water) on a journey that
will span 3 worlds.

FFV
features a truly innovative character growth system that requires the
gamer to assign jobs classes to each individual character. The choices
of job classifications is quite large including such jobs as Ninja,
Knight (white or black), Mage, Thiefs, Chemists, and Monks (priests).
Feeding into this system are the battles. In addition to gaining
experience points and gold for winning each fight you also gain Ability
points. With ability points you are able to move characters up within
the classes and achieve your unique characters. It was one of the few
times in recent memory that I actually looked forward to battles so that
I could gain more and more ability points and thus further customize my
characters. This whole job system was later used to perfection in the
Playstation game Final Fantasy Tactics.

In typical fashion, Square ups the ante with FFVI by introducing a new
battle and magic system in addition to weaving a whole new story with
all new characters. FFVI opens up with a world that has been decimated
by the evil powers of magic. After almost complete destruction, it was
decided that magic would be banned from use forever. Over time the world
began to rediscover technology and machinery and seemed well on its way
to making a good start again. Of course, there just happens to be
pockets of people that wish to begin using the powers of magic again but
will it be for good or evil this time around?

Right
from the start of FFVI you can plainly see the graphical improvements of
the title when compared to FFV. In typical Square fashion we are treated
to an opening sequence that begins to set the story up with two
characters named Wedge and Biggs. If you have already enjoyed FFVIII,
these two names will be immediately recognizable to you. It seems that
they intend to raid the mining town of Narshe to recover Tritoch Esper,
which will enable the use of magic for the Imperial Guards. They are
also dragging along a mysterious woman named Terra that already has the
ability to use magic on her own. With the aid an old man and a treasure
hunter named Locke, Terra manages to escape and your adventure is truly
set to begin.

The new system used in FFVI is something called Esper magic. Esper is
located throughout the world of Final Fantasy VI and once collected will
ultimately enable your characters to cast over 90 different spells of
both black and white magic. Some of the spells are truly mind-boggling
and awesome to watch.

The
battles will be familiar to Square gamers. You still have your life bars
that need to be full before you can execute an attack on the enemy and
you are vulnerable to attack while it is charging. In fact you can even
use the summon command in FFV which I thought was rather cool as I
didn't know it was developed so long ago. Ifrit is one of the forces
that once defeated can be summoned! There is also a unique element to
the battles in FFVI that I truly enjoyed and that is the fact that you
can control multiple squads at a time. There are certain scenarios that
will require you to break up teams and control them individually in
order to succeed. This added an additional strategic element to the
battles as it often become very important to where you set your teams up
and where you confronted and attacked your enemies. Sweet!

Both games also include a brilliantly executed tutorial mode to help
gamers get answers to how the battle systems work, how to ride
Chocobo's, how to assign jobs, etc. These tutorials are accessed by
entering training or beginners houses and also by prompts that
occasionally come up during gameplay.

So to wrap things up here, while both FFV and FFVI may show their age
in terms of graphical capabilities their well scripted stories remain
timeless and infinitely enjoyable. The fact that you can bare witness to
Squares evolution in the RPG environment is also a real treat. The
optional side quests are present especially in FFVI so gamers will have
tons of stuff to find and do. Hell the package is worth the price of
admission just to get a chance to play FFV. The reality that it is also
bundled with FFVI and a bonus audio CD is just icing on the cake.

Game
Options:

This is a Three disk set for 1
Player. It is compatible with the standard (digital) joypad and the dual
shock (analog) joypad. Games can be saved via memory card (1 block per
save).

Staff
Opinions

Tom: "The
official release of Final Fantasy V in the United States should
provide enough excitement in the minds and hearts of RPGer's to make
them want to rush right out and get this game. Now couple that with
the re-release of FFVI and throw in an audio CD with the game's
soundtracks on it and you have one heck of a sweet package deal here
folks.

Yeah, the graphics are kinda crunchy and dated compared to what we
have become accustomed to today, but the sound effects, music and
the awesome storylines are enough to drive these titles into the
stratosphere. It would be downright criminal for any self-respecting
RPGer to deprive themselves of these epic adventures. This is a
definite must have package that gamers of most ages will enjoy. "

Graphics: 10/20Playability: 47/50

Sound: 9/10Lastability: 20/20

Overall: 86%

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